Manual controls for current hovering unmanned aerial vehicles (HUAVs) are typically either a joystick or a stylus attached to a computing device in communication with an HUAV. Joystick controls are somewhat intuitive as the displacement of a joystick generally relates to the desired attitude change in the controlled vehicle. One drawback to current joystick controls for an HUAV is the fact that the control inputs are limited by the joystick platform. That is, joystick platforms typically enable controls to be input via one or more two dimensional controllers (e.g., a controller that receives inputs in the X direction and a second controller that receive inputs in the Y direction) and translates such inputs into three dimensional movement for the HUAV.
Stylus controls are less intuitive than joystick controls as their primary purpose is for pre-planned missions as opposed to interactive manual control. The stylus controls attempt to be intuitive by abstracting vehicle controls to move forward, backward, up, down, left, right, etc., but because of their nature result in slow, tedious manual control of the vehicle. Furthermore, stylus controls typically result in a “heads down” approach to controlling a particular vehicle, which limits the situational awareness of the user and exposes the user to physical threats.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for controlling HUAVs using three-dimensional, free hand motion control inputs. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.